The Box

Can anyone say treasure hunting?  I know this sounds absurd, but that is just what happened to us.  My uncle, who had been operated on for a brain tumor and was still recovering from surgery had his nurse phone my mother.  He was quite upset and determined that we needed to get a box he had left behind his shed.

It was pouring heavily.  The nurse had told my mother she thought he was confused - that he just wasn't making sense.   BUT, we had to go and check! So we drove the half hour to his house.  With a rainbow colored umbrella and coats pulled up tight we searched behind the shed.  No sign of a box!  We even looked around the sides of the house and the garage.  Still no box!

We left his home knowing that the nurse must have been right and that he was indeed confused.  This didn't bode well for his recovery.

The next day came and my dad called me.  He had just hung up from my uncle again.  When my parents had told him there was no box he became quite upset and said, "Then you aren't looking in the right place!"  He then gave very precise directions to my dad as to this box's location.  Now we knew that it was under a red brick, six feet behind the shed, and buried.  Buried???

This was seeming to be a bit odd, but then again, my uncle is a bit eccentric.  So, this time my husband and father made the trip again to his home.  They went to the shed with my husband carrying a shovel.  They walked six feet behind the shed which led them to the edge of the woods.  Looking down at the ground there was indeed a red brick.  No way!  Could this be so?

They moved the red brick and began removing shovel fulls of dirt.  There in the hole was a small box!  It was a cardboard box which had been wrapped in layers of gray duct tape to prevent water from damaging the contents.  They covered the hole and replaced the brick.  Upon turning around, my husband noticed that there were other red bricks laying scattered about the yard.

"You don't suppose there are other boxes, do you?" my husband asked my father.
"Maybe,"  he replied. "We'll have to go treasure hunting again some day to see."

Well, the box did hold treasure, not the kind of usual treasure which is money or jewels or even a treasure map.  It was treasure to an old man whose memories were fading fast.  The treasure was my uncle's memories and notes about his mother carefully written on page after page, folded neatly, and tucked inside this small box.

I don't know why he buried them.  I don't know if the other bricks are really markers to other boxes, or if they are just bricks lying in the yard.  BUT what I do know is that my uncle was definitely not confused, because here is -
THE BOX!